With the Home Run Derby and the All-Star week events on the horizon, we thought today would be a good time to flashback to a simpler time – a time when no one argued about career credentials and just appreciated the sideshow of entertainment that watching professional baseball players launch monster home runs provided.

The Home Run Derby as we know it now likely originated from the brainchild of 1960s TV producers who thought pitting future Hall of Famers against each other to see who could hit more home runs would make for good programming.

Thus, the syndicated television program known as “Home Run Derby” was born.

Thanks in large part to the power of the internet and the early foresight of baseball appreciators across the country, we can watch some of the greatest players in history duke it out to hit homers more than 50 years later.